Forging
by Dragon Shojo
Summary: Mokuba finally starts 8th grade as a hopefully regular student, and forges some new friendships. A prequel to the Notebook of Mokuba Kaiba except with many changes made to the setting . This story is up to test feedback and reception: REVIEWS WELCOME!
1. Prologue

Author's Notes: After rekindling my Mokuba fangirlism, I decided to write another fanfic. I'm putting this out there to get some review before I continue on this, so tell me if you think I should change anything or whether I'm conveying personality right, and if I'm writing in new characters well. I'll take this feedback into consideration when I continue. Thanks!

Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! and the characters Kaiba Mokuba and Seto are copyrighted by Kazuki Takahashi.

Other notes: Names are presented in Eastern order, meaning last name first.  
I'm trying to base Mokuba more off his manga personality, which is a ruder and more spoiled Mokuba than we see in the American anime. However, I'll still try to retain elements of the "adorable" Mokuba - suggestions are much welcome.

Prologue

I finally did it.

I looked in the bathroom mirror to observe my handiwork. My hair no longer stretched down to the middle of my back, but instead stopped just above my shoulders. There's a pile of hair in the sink and a few strands everywhere – I'm going to have to clean that up. Overall, the cut could use some work, but it was decent. A new look for a new school.

Yes, today I would be starting my 8th grade year at middle school. I had only been at school a few days a month for the last few years – being vice president of Kaiba Corp is a huge job after all. I hadn't been able to make any real friends. The kids in the streets looked up to me and would do anything I asked them to, but it wasn't like I really knew them. I'm going to sticking around this year!

I'm also going to make myself known this school year. No longer will I be "Kaiba Seto's little brother." For far too long have I been trailing in my nii-sama's shadow, always trying to be as successful and powerful as he is. Over the years, I've realized that the only way to attain such success is to stand out. To be myself!

After dumping my cut-off hair into the trash like the ties of my childhood, I picked up my backpack and cap, and made my way down to the kitchen for breakfast. I am determined to make my own name this school year – a name that will strike fear and awe into my fellow students.

KAIBA MOKUBA

--

Glossary

nii-sama: "honorable older brother"


	2. Chapter 1

Author's Notes: After rekindling my Mokuba fangirlism, I decided to write another fanfic. I'm putting this out there to get some review before I continue on this, so tell me if you think I should change anything or whether I'm conveying personality right, and if I'm writing in new characters well. I'll take this feedback into consideration when I continue. Thanks!

Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! and the characters Kaiba Mokuba and Seto are copyrighted by Kazuki Takahashi.

Nakashima Shinju is a character of my own creation.

Other notes: Names are presented in Eastern order, meaning last name first.

Chapter 1:

"Mokuba!! What did you do to your hair?!" were the first words I heard my brother, Seto nii-sama say. He was sitting down at the table, holding his coffee mug and the business section of the newspaper, and stared at me in shock. The hand holding the mug was littered with drops of coffee that he had snorted out upon seeing me.

"I cut it," I said as a matter-of-factly.

"So you did," he said, frowning. He put down the paper and wiped off his hands on a napkin. "If you had only told me, I would have taken you to get it cut last week." Obviously, he was not happy.

"But nii-sama was busy," I said. "And sometimes things are done best when you do them yourself," I added, stealing one of his lines. That earned me a glare – Seto didn't appreciated when I started using his own teachings against him. I kept rambling on. "Besides, it looks more professional now! It's hard for people to take me seriously with a wild mane like that!"

Seto just gave me that look that meant that I was talking too much. I cut it and sat down to breakfast. Eggs, bacon, rice and milk. The air was awkwardly silent as I ate my food and Seto pored over the stock report. I swallowed a bite of rice and ventured a question. "How's KC stock doing?"

"Going up," he replied, unenthused.

"That's good," I said. I ate some more of my food. Isono cleared my plate after I had finished. I then turned to Seto and tried to ask him another question. It just didn't seem right to have a silent breakfast before my first day of school. "Can I have some coffee?"

Seto gave me a questioning look. "You're only thirteen. You don't need coffee at your age."

"But… I'm the veep of Kaiba Corp!"

"Even if you are the _vice president_ of Kaiba Corp, it's not good for you to be drinking coffee every morning."

"You drink it all the time, Seto! What kind of example are you setting for me now, huh?" I stood up and pointed at him accusingly as I spoke.

"I'm five years older than you, Mokuba," he replied curtly. "Now let's go, you're going to be late for school."

"Yes, nii-sama," I said grumpily and turned to leave. I wasn't really that mad at him; I usually do this because it's fun. And even though he doesn't show it, I'm sure he has fun arguing with me too. Sure of it!

To my surprise, I heard Seto's footsteps along with mine as I headed toward the front door. I looked up to see his tall frame over mine. He looked at me and smiled. I smiled back.

"Are you excited, Mokuba?" he asked. I replied with an enthusiastic nod.

"Now, I don't want to hear about you causing trouble," he started. "You know I'm very busy and I don't have time to going down to the headmaster's office all the time."

Oh boy… the "be good" speech. I just keep replying with nods and "I know" at appropriate intervals. After we made our way to the driveway, he was still going on. I swore he repeated something along the way. "Keep your grades up – this school is very high-ranking and full of students in affluent positions in society as yourself. Many of your classmates will have just as enough money as we do and some are even our neighbors. I won't have you tarnishing the Kaiba name and making us a laughingstock with poor grades and behavior."

"Yes, nii-sama," I replied.

Seto held out his mug to me. "One sip," he said.

I took one sip – albeit a large one. I swallowed the hot, bitter mouthful of black coffee. Bleah. I hid my disgust to avoid an "I told you so," and just smiled up at my brother. "Thanks, Seto," I said, and hugged him. He patted my head. "Have a good day at school, little brother," he said.

"I will!" I said as I got into my car. I waved at Seto as the driver took me down the driveway. As we turned around a hedge out onto the road, and Seto was out of view, I turned around front again, I told the driver to take me to Shinju's house. I said I was picking him up today for school.

Nakashima Shinju was the best friend I've had so far. We met during the Battle City tournament – the first one with the whole Rare Hunter mess. Some stupid jerk had scattered his deck, and Shinju was trying to retrieve all his cards. I got down to help him and on our journey through the city, we talked and got to know each other a little. It took us half the afternoon to find all of his cards, but we both had fun doing things like noticing sights around the city, trading Duel Monster strategies and laughing at duelists with even worse fashion sense than me. I think that's what took us so long, actually.

I later found out that he was in my fifth grade class. I was usually so involved with games and beating people at them that I had never noticed him. I also found out that both his parents were surgeons, and that he lived not very far away from me. Seto always hated it when I brought Shinju over because then it was like two of me against him.

"Hey, Mokuba-kun!!" I heard Shinju calling my name and saw him standing outside his house, waving at me. He was wearing the same uniform I was – a black _gakuran_-style uniform with a green cap.

He slid into the back of the car next to me. "What's up, Mokuba-kun?" Shinju was the only person I had ever heard calling me Mokuba-kun. Everyone I knew who was my age called me Kaiba-sama.

"First day of school," I said.

"First day trying to blend into society for you, eh?" Shinju elbowed me. "Don't worry, I'll stick with you so you won't get lost." I was glad to have Shinju, even though his comment did rub me a bit. Practically everyone would know me, but I didn't think I would know anyone. The businessmen that my brother dealt with every day didn't have any children my age or children at all. We didn't know our neighbors very much either, except for this girl named Miyuki who lived next door. She was about Seto's age, and a bit of a nutcase, but she was fun to be around. Other than that, in grade school, I was usually busy lording it over my classmates and beating them at practically every game on the planet. They all worshipped me. But hopefully I could make some real friends this time. Shinju was great – he was blunt with me and didn't care if I had a ton of money and power. Partly because he was also quite wealthy, but he also had a long history of defying authority. But I knew Shinju wouldn't be able to get me out of every situation, and it'd be nice to have someone with a different personality than him to go to whenever I had problems.

"I'll be fine," I said. "Don't baby me, this isn't the first time I've been in a school. And besides, I live in a huge mansion. I think I can find my way around a private junior high school."

"Do you think you'll be able to stick around for the whole school year? Being vice president and tournament commissioner must have made you miss a lot of school."

"Yeah," I admitted. I was nervous about the curriculum, too. I was hardly at school for an entire week in a row and so there were gaps in 6th and 7th grade.

"Hey, I'm sure you'll be able to catch up." Shinju attempted to slap me on the back but only got my shoulder, since the back of the car seat was in the way.

"Still, Seto hasn't scheduled any huge tournaments or anything that I know of. I can at least make it through an entire month at school."

"What about your vice president job?"

"I don't really do that much," I said, waving it off with my hand. " What am I, thirteen? I just decide whether it's worth sending in people to see Seto or not, and any other issue I delegate to our other workers." I had to admit though – it was going to feel very strange being out of the company for eight hours a day, six days a week 1.

"And now you're going to be spending your time in class learning and at home doing homework."

I'm going to be a student… somehow that thought depresses me a little. But maybe a career change wouldn't be so bad for me.

1 - It is not unusual for Japanese students to go to school on Saturday. (Source: Cardcapter Sakura - Master of the Clow Vol 6)

Glossary

-kun: Honorific referring to a (usu. male) friend

-sama: Honorific meaning great respect, akin to "lord" or "master"

gakuran: A military-style Japanese school uniform. The male uniforms worn by Yuugi and his friends are gakuran.


	3. Chapter 2

Author's Notes: After rekindling my Mokuba fangirlism, I decided to write another fanfic. I'm putting this out there to get some review before I continue on this, so tell me if you think I should change anything or whether I'm conveying personality right, and if I'm writing in new characters well. I'll take this feedback into consideration when I continue. Thanks!

Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! and the characters Kaiba Mokuba and Seto are copyrighted by Kazuki Takahashi.

Konii Tajiri is a character of my own creation.

Other notes: Names are presented in Eastern order, meaning last name first.  
THIS CHAPTER IS INCOMPLETE - but I'm posting it to gain feedback on what I have written so far.

Chapter 2

Shinju and I spent the rest of the car ride playing Duel Monsters. We were at a stalemate when the driver pulled up in front of the school.

"Here we are, Kaiba-sama," he announced before getting out to open the door for me and Shinju.

"Welcome to your first day of school."

I stood there and stared trying to take in the sight. The front of the school was an impressive European-style building, three stories high, with large double doors and a courtyard at the entrance. The whole school was surrounded by an iron fence. The court was filled with students socializing in clusters, or early birds who had decided to find their classes first streaming into the school building. Girls were in black skirts and white sailor tops with short sleeves, while the boys were dressed like Shinju and I were. Some of the guys had taken off their jackets. It wasn't very cold yet, so they were wearing their summer uniform shirts. A male staff member in a dark suit was supervising them all.

I felt a tug on my sleeve. "Come on, Mokuba!" Shinju said. "Let's go see our class!" I followed him into the school.

I followed him to classroom 8A. The room was completely spick-and-span. Individual desks were arranged neatly in rows and columns. The blackboard was clean, the floor was spotless, and all the school supplies and books were arranged like little soldiers in formation. I had a feeling it wouldn't stay that way forever.

There were a few students already inside but one caught my attention in particular. He wasn't very hard to miss, judging by the large group of girls that were gathered around him.

"Hey, Shinju, who's that guy?" I asked, elbowing my friend and pointing at the guy in question.

"Hmm? Oh, that's Konii Tajiri," he said. "He's one of the more popular guys at school."

"I can tell," I growled. I looked at Tajiri, sizing him up, which was hard since he was sitting down and nearly engulfed by the crowd around him. His hair was a light aqua color and neatly trimmed short in the back with medium-length bangs in the front. He was leaning forward on his desk, engaged in conversation, blue eyes flitting back and forth between various speakers. His smiling face held smooth features with soft curves. The rest of his body (from what I could tell with his uniform on anyways) looked pretty fragile, and his pale complexion didn't add any strength to his frame. This was going to be my competition here?

"What's so great about that pretty boy?" I asked as Shinju and I made our way to our seats.


End file.
